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After you’ve come up with something like this, create a new layer set by clicking on the folder icon on the bottom of the layers palette. Now use ‘Thing’ (the hand) in the layers palette to drag each of these layers into the layer set folder. No need keeping er’thing a big ol’ mess.

Now that you have them all in a layer set, you can go ahead and Free Transform the entire layer set as a whole (as well as change it’s global blending mode). Uncover all secrets of Photoshop here.

Here is where I make things up as I go along and you should also have the instinctive urge to do so. I’ve duplicated the entire layer set by dragging it to the new layer icon (yes you can do that). Then I’ve changed the blending mode to Color Burn and with the moVe tool, nudge it over and down to the left.

In a Photoshop Design like this you’ll want to definitely get used to the blending modes. Throughout this whole process I’m always trying out different B boy modes to see what works the best for my Simon Cowell-esque eyes.

This is blending modes and duplication/transforming of the layer sets. Note I have one on Overlay and one on Color Burn. This creates some interesting light mixtures of depth. Yes you can duplicate layer sets.

Create a new blank layer and fill it with black. You need to have some substance on a layer in order to give it a lens flare.

In Photoshop CS there is a new Filter: Render: Lens Flare called ‘Movie Prime’ (which I didn’t know existed until I was recording this tutorial live). This looks totally filled with instant shabang potential so I’m using this with a high brightness value. You would use the other filters in Photoshop 7 or less. Might I suggest the Pine Zoom..it has a whiter glow.

Press OK.

This effect is going to be perfect! Now I don’t have to create as many (if any) additional ‘lines’ in the design b/c they are already extending from the lens flare. In these kind of designs (this subgenre) there will often be a light source...a source of light. You can easily create this with the lens flare (or even brushes...).

Because you have filled a layer with black and put this lens flare on it...umm...it’s filling up or covering the rest of the design you may say. No problem! Once again the blending modes to the rescue.

Try out some different blending modes and see what you like best. A lot of your determing factor may be with how dark your background gradient layer actually is. When you use darker blending modes (the first and third set) they will mix darker values to create an even darker effect all together. With a black fill layer and lens flare you’re almost always going to want to use one of the lighten blend modes (second set). This will hide the black fill pixels all together and let your beautiful lens flare light shine on.

For now I’m using Screen blending mode but might change it later. You can duplicate the layer and bring up Ctrl U to make a hue/saturation adjustment. I clicked the colorize box and moved the slider to choose a purple. This looks like another good option but I’m hiding the layer and coming back to it later perhaps.

Grab your circular marquee tool and holding the Shift key create a very small circle some where on the document. Create a new layer in the layers palette and choose a purple foreground color. Press alt backspace to fill with this color.

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